Publikation
RopeDreamer: A Kinematic Recurrent State Space Model for Dynamics of Flexible Deformable Linear Objects
Tim Missal; Lucas Domingues; Berk Guler; Simon Manschitz; Jan Peters; Paula Dornhofer Paro Costa
In: Computing Research Repository eprint Journal (CoRR), Vol. abs/2604.28161, Pages 1-8, arXiv, 2026.
Zusammenfassung
The robotic manipulation of Deformable Linear
Objects (DLOs) is a fundamental challenge due to the high-
dimensional, non-linear dynamics of flexible structures and
the complexity of maintaining topological integrity during
contact-rich tasks. While recent data-driven methods have
utilized Recurrent and Graph Neural Networks for dynamics
modeling, they often struggle with self-intersections and non-
physical deformations, such as tangling and link stretching.
In this paper, we propose a latent dynamics framework that
combines a Recurrent State Space Model with a Quaternionic
Kinematic Chain representation to enable robust, long-term
forecasting of DLO states. By encoding the DLO as a sequence
of relative rotations (quaternions) rather than independent
Cartesian positions, we inherently constrain the model to a
physically valid manifold that preserves link-length constancy.